Preface

Clinical and translational research will play an increasingly important role in healthcare and the profession of pharmacy, including pharmacy education. The 2008 report from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) task force on educating clinical scientists detailed the content areas and competencies needed for the PharmD curriculum.^1,2 These competencies included identifying opportunities across the research spectrum, from identifying research problems and gaps to conducting the research and disseminating the research findings. The latest standards from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) require pharmacy education and training to incorporate various elements of research, including foundational, applicational, and translational components of clinical research.³ In recent years, there has been a greater focus from a variety of stakeholders on practice-based research for generating evidence and translating this evidence to direct patient care. Pharmacists and student pharmacists are increasingly involved in or have the opportunity to be involved in this clinical and translational research across the research and practice continuum. Although initially practice-based research was limited to those with advanced training or degrees, today’s student pharmacists increasingly have opportunities to be involved in research during their professional training. Pharmacy schools are also intensifying the focus on preparing students to conduct research via encouraging or mandating research during professional education and training in elective and required courses or capstone programs.

In discussing the challenges that are inherently specific to PharmD and residency research, this book became a natural extension of our previous book, Principles of Research Design and Drug Literature Evaluation (Aparasu and Bentley). The previous book emphasized principles and execution of scientific research with a focus on a detailed discussion of clinical research designs, statistical analysis, and evidence-based medicine principles that readers could use to carry out research and apply evidence to patient care. However, there was a need for a book that can help our student pharmacists and residents who are beginning their journeys as researchers. The vision for this book evolved over discussions about the challenges and successes of PharmD and residency research projects at our respective institutions. This book speaks directly to the challenges of PharmD and residency research and provides novice researchers and their mentors with a practical and systematic framework that can be used for conducting practice-based research in pharmacy settings.

The goal of this companion book is to provide student pharmacists and residents a practical and systematic framework or a “how-to and hands-on” focus for initiating and conducting practice-based research in pharmacy settings. The concepts and components found in this book have evolved over years of refinement in facing challenges and experiencing successes in teaching and mentoring student pharmacists and residents during their research projects. It is designed for student pharmacists and residents who undertake a capstone or standalone research project as part of their professional training, and we hope it serves as a valuable resource to enhance the research quality of PharmD and residency projects. This book focuses on practical approaches and considerations for conducting practice-based research highlighting how to leverage existing resources and infrastructure at academic institutions and practice settings to enhance a research project. There is a special emphasis on learner-involved research in each chapter, highlighting the application of concepts in the chapter through example research that involved or was conducted by students or residents (or both).

This book is divided into three sections. Section I covers critical elements in the planning of practice-based research. Section II provides practicalities of conducting practice-based research in pharmacy settings. Section III gives readers a dissemination framework for practice-based research in pharmacy.

Chapters 1 through 7 in Section I are intended to be a guide to assist learners as they create and establish their practice-based research. This section starts with a chapter on the concepts of practice-based research and its role in pharmacy (Chapter 1). The next two chapters cover topics on how to identify a research mentor and maximize that relationship (Chapter 2) and commonly used research and support infrastructure, including layered learning models (Chapter 3). Generalized approaches for identifying research questions and hypotheses (Chapter 4) and selection of research methods and designs for practice-based research (Chapter 5) are also detailed. Additionally, readers will find that the other chapters in this section cover required practical considerations such as human subjects protections and institutional review board (IRB) approval (Chapter 6) as well as technical considerations such as data management, planning for statistical analysis, and the process of collaborating with statisticians (Chapter 7). We hope that learners and mentors who read these chapters will find valuable advice in setting up their research projects for success.

Section II includes fourteen chapters covering the variety of pharmacy practice-based research that learners may be engaged in clinical and academic settings. The first three chapters discuss commonly used learner-involved research projects in clinical settings, from case reports/case-series (Chapter 8) and intervention research (Chapter 9) to implementation research (Chapter 10). The next two chapters describe research involving self-reports like survey research in general (Chapter 11) and patient-reported outcomes research in specific (Chapter 12). Quality improvement research (Chapter 13) and generalized approaches for secondary data research (Chapter 14) are also detailed. Furthermore, this section explains qualitative approaches (Chapter 15) and often used drug utilization research (Chapter 16) in pharmacy. With the increasing use of epidemiology and economic concepts in pharmacy, the research process for pharmacoepidemiology (Chapter 17) and pharmacoeconomic research (Chapter 18) are also described. There are two chapters focusing on literature reviews; the details for conducting both narrative/scoping (Chapter 19) and systematic review and meta-analysis (Chapter 20) are described. This section ends with a chapter on educational research in pharmacy (Chapter 21).

Each chapter in Section II addresses critical considerations for learners to conduct specific types of practice-based research. These chapters are intended to orient novice researchers to the type of research described, including common research questions, practical and technical considerations, mentorship and expertise, and the dissemination framework. Each chapter also uses a learner-involved research project as an example to demonstrate the concepts discussed in the chapter. It is our hope that readers can use this section and the content of these chapters to serve as a quick reference to begin considerations for specific research projects. Additionally, we included open-ended discussion questions in each of these chapters to facilitate conversations around key concepts between learner and mentor.

The final section of the book focuses on best practices in disseminating research findings. It includes chapters covering best practices and practical considerations in abstract and poster presentations (Chapter 22) and best methods for podium and other oral presentations (Chapter 23). This section also details critical considerations and techniques for manuscript preparation (Chapter 24) and successfully navigating the peer-review process along with decision-making processes commonly utilized by editors (Chapter 25).

We hope that this book will help student pharmacists, residents, and fellows interested in conducting practice-based research in pharmacy. We hope that all mentees and mentors can use this text as a resource and a guide to developing better research questions, designing better studies, and ultimately making a greater impact on patient care and student learning. This book can also be an excellent resource for undergraduate students in the pharmaceutical sciences, graduate students in pharmacy-related disciplines, and research fellows. Faculty members advising student pharmacists can use the book along with Principles of Research Design and Drug Literature Evaluation for a capstone course or standalone project/course supplemented by research articles. The contents of this book should also be very useful for PharmD programs with capstone or senior/honors research projects. This book would also be ideal for elective research courses and should be a valuable resource to residents and residency preceptors in helping to manage the research component (i.e., completion of a research study or a quality improvement project) of residency training.

Chapter authors are experts specializing in pharmacy practice research. Each chapter includes learning objectives, key terminology, review questions, online resources, and references. The chapters were developed from the learner’s perspective to provide practical and technical considerations for conducting practice-based research. In addition to figures and tables, each chapter provides an example of learner-involved research. We greatly appreciate feedback from students and faculty for future editions. All research is considered a work in progress, including the contents of this book.